This morning, my boss came to me with an iPod Nano. His son had sent it through the wash. Amazingly enough, it still works, despite being scratched to hell, and having a broken screen. The boss had gotten a replacement screen, and wanted me to throw it in at my convenience.

"Of course, not a problem!" I said. the man signs my paycheck, what else would I say? So I set to work. But, of course, I cant do just the bare minimum. I am wearing a MacMod t-shirt after all.

I decided to do something about the massive scratching on the front and back. 5 minutes, a pepsi and some gray matter later, I was sitting at my desk with everything I needed. Here's what I've got.

several sheets of automotive grade sandpaper. 1000 and 2000 grit. a tub of turtle wax rubbing compound (white kind) and a bottle of guitar polish. All stuff I had either at my desk in the shop, or on my table in the basement next to the spray booth.

With the nano gutted, I gave it light pressure with the 1K grit paper, working in a circular pattern. the whole surface hazed up as I went. After the surface was hazed decently, I took a little rubbing compound and polished away the haze. Wow. tons better. but not perfect. I switched to the 2k grit and gave that moderate pressure. More surface haze as it blended all the swirls together. Once I had a good amount of hazing, I used more rubbing compound. Wow x2. really close to a glassy surface! Guitar polish was now the order of the day. OOOOOOOO...shiny! Success!

I then took 2k grit and cleaned down the metal back plate. This time however, instead of polishing with the turtle wax compound, I broke out the zildjian cymbal polish. This brought back the mirror shine that was missing.

I then snapped the whole repaired and polished unit back together. Looking at it, you'd never know it went through the wash. I havent shown the boss yet, but he may be a bit surprised.

Anyway, while this isnt a mod guide, if you've got a scratched to hell ipod, try my method. It'll freak you out when you start to sand, but you'll get positive results. Trust me.

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